The State and other Societies

From the consideration of one particular society or association or organised group within the state, namely the political party, authors pass on to a more general consideration of the relations of the state to the other societies of which its citizens are members. The position of such societies in relation to the state has at various times been the subject of considerable controversy. By comparison with the state they may be described as voluntary societies, but, just as authors saw earlier that there is a small degree of voluntariness about membership of a state, so there may be an element of compulsion in these other societies. But the fundamental fact is that they are organised societies; that is to say bodies of people associated together, with a defined procedure for arriving at decisions which are accepted as binding on the whole society.

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